Idealism

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Distribution within Humanities and Social Sciences


Selected Abstracts


V,,KANT'S FIRST ANALOGY AND THE REFUTATION OF IDEALISM

PROCEEDINGS OF THE ARISTOTELIAN SOCIETY (HARDBACK), Issue 1 2006
Mark Sacks
First page of article [source]


A NEW LOOK AT BERKELEY'S IDEALISM

THE HEYTHROP JOURNAL, Issue 2 2009
BENJAMIN L. CURTIS
In this note I firstly give a formulation of Berkeleyean Idealism in modern anti-realist terms. Secondly, I supply a reading of Berkeley that serves to do three things: 1. It makes clear that the formulation of the position in modern terms is acceptable. 2. It offers a revealing insight into the reasons why Berkeley accepted the position. 3. It allows us to see that these reasons are, in fact, bad ones. [source]


CAUSAL REFUTATIONS OF IDEALISM

THE PHILOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY, Issue 240 2010
Andrew Chignell
In the ,Refutation of Idealism' chapter of the first Critique, Kant argues that the conditions required for having certain kinds of mental episodes are sufficient to guarantee that there are ,objects in space' outside us. A perennially influential way of reading this compressed argument is as a kind of causal inference: in order for us to make justified judgements about the order of our inner states, those states must be caused by the successive states of objects in space outside us. Here I consider the best recent versions of this reading, and argue that each suffers from apparently fatal flaws. [source]


Is Dialetheism an Idealism?

DIALECTICA, Issue 2 2007
The Russellian Fallacy, the Dialetheist's Dilemma
In his famous work on vagueness, Russell named ,fallacy of verbalism' the fallacy that consists in mistaking the properties of words for the properties of things. In this paper, I examine two (clusters of) mainstream paraconsistent logical theories , the non-adjunctive and relevant approaches ,, and show that, if they are given a strongly paraconsistent or dialetheic reading, the charge of committing the Russellian Fallacy can be raised against them in a sophisticated way, by appealing to the intuitive reading of their underlying semantics. The meaning of ,intuitive reading' is clarified by exploiting a well-established distinction between pure and applied semantics. If the proposed arguments go through, the dialetheist or strong paraconsistentist faces the following Dilemma: either she must withdraw her claim to have exhibited true contradictions in a metaphysically robust sense , therefore, inconsistent objects and/or states of affairs that make those contradictions true; or she has to give up realism on truth, and embrace some form of anti-realistic (idealistic, or broadly constructivist) metaphysics. Sticking to the second horn of the Dilemma, though, appears to be promising: it could lead to a collapse of the very distinction, commonly held in the literature, between a weak and a strong form of paraconsistency , and this could be a welcome result for a dialetheist. [source]


Imagining Objects and Imagining Experiences

MIND & LANGUAGE, Issue 4 2002
Paul Noordhof
A number of philosophers have argued in favour of the Dependency Thesis: if a subject sensorily imagines an F then he or she sensorily imagines from the inside perceptually experiencing an F in the imaginary world. They claim that it explains certain important features of imaginative experience, in brief: the fact that it is perspectival, the fact that it does not involve presentation of sensory qualities and the fact that mental images can serve a number of different imaginings. I argue that the Dependency Thesis is false and that, in any event, it does not have the explanatory credentials claimed for it. Some of the features of imaginative experience are incorrectly specified, namely the absence of presentation of sensory qualities. With a more precise idea of what we need to explain, I argue that the explanation should proceed by noting that imagination and perception have phenomenally similar contents and that this is to be explained in terms of the similar kinds of representations in play. I trace the consequences of my discussion for disjunctivist theories of perception, Berkeleian Idealism and the characterisation of knowing what an experience is like. [source]


Schelling versus Hegel: From German Idealism to Christian Metaphysics , By John Laughland

MODERN THEOLOGY, Issue 3 2010
John R. Betz
First page of article [source]


THE CHRISTOLOGICAL FOCUS OF VLADIMIR SOLOV'EV'S SOPHIOLOGY*

MODERN THEOLOGY, Issue 4 2009
BRANDON GALLAHER
Vladimir Solov'ev (1853,1900) is one of the major influences on Sergii Bulgakov's "sophiology" and has been praised by both Hans Urs von Balthasar and John Milbank. However, his theology has often been read as a mere "religious philosophy" unduly influenced by Gnosticism and German Idealism. The article argues that Solov'ev's theology is more accurately understood as a unique form of Christology which integrates Gnostic and Idealist thought into Chalcedonian orthodoxy. Solov'ev's most important contribution is a sophiological reading of Christology which attempts to found the created on the uncreated without collapsing one into the other or ontologically juxtaposing them. [source]


Kant's Refutation of Idealism

NOUS, Issue 1 2008
Georges Dicker
First page of article [source]


Transcendental Idealism in the "Aesthetic",

PHILOSOPHY AND PHENOMENOLOGICAL RESEARCH, Issue 1 2004
KIERAN SETIYA
First page of article [source]


Who's Who from Kant to Hegel II: Art and the Absolute

PHILOSOPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 5 2010
Peter Graham Thielke
Kant's ,Copernican Revolution', which began in the Critique of Pure Reason (1781/1787), had, by the early 1790s, fundamentally altered the terrain of German philosophy , but not entirely in the way that Kant had foreseen. Skeptical challenges to Kant's discursive account of cognition, in which experience arises from the separate faculties of sensibility and understanding, had led thinkers such as K.L. Reinhold and J.G. Fichte to attempt to provide a first, foundational principle for the critical philosophy. These efforts were enormously influential, but by the middle of the 1790s, they too were facing a great deal of critical scrutiny. The central challenge to the Fichtean project came from an unlikely quarter: a group of young thinkers and poets who are collectively known as the early Romantics. For the Romantics, Fichte's project remains too ,subjectivist', for it tries to provide an account of the world by beginning with the conditions that govern subjectivity alone. Rather, the Romantics argue that the world must be understood in terms of a monistic Absolute, akin to Spinoza's substance, in which all dualisms are overcome. It is with this step that Absolute Idealism comes on the scene, and sets the stage for the development of Hegel's system in the early 1800s. This essay, which continues the story of ,Who's Who from Kant to Hegel I', examines the ways in which early Romanticism reacted to the Fichtean project, looks at a variety of anti-foundationalist idealisms that the Romantics , in particular Hölderlin, Novalis, Schlegel, and Schleiermacher , developed, and traces the role that Friedrich Schelling plays in offering the first systematic account of Absolute Idealism. [source]


IV,Kant's Argument for Transcendental Idealism in the Transcendental Aesthetic

PROCEEDINGS OF THE ARISTOTELIAN SOCIETY (HARDBACK), Issue 1pt1 2010
Lucy AllaisArticle first published online: 23 APR 2010
This paper gives an interpretation of Kant's argument for transcendental idealism in the Transcendental Aesthetic. I argue against a common way of reading this argument, which sees Kant as arguing that substantive a priori claims about mind-independent reality would be unintelligible because we cannot explain the source of their justification. I argue that Kant's concern with how synthetic a priori propositions are possible is not a concern with the source of their justification, but with how they can have objects. I argue that Kant's notion of intuition needs to be understood as a kind of representation which involves the presence to consciousness of the object it represents, and that this means that a priori intuition cannot present us with a mind-independent feature of reality. [source]


Schelling Versus Hegel: from German Idealism to Christian Metaphysics , By John Laughland

RELIGIOUS STUDIES REVIEW, Issue 3 2008
Forrest Clingerman
No abstract is available for this article. [source]


A NEW LOOK AT BERKELEY'S IDEALISM

THE HEYTHROP JOURNAL, Issue 2 2009
BENJAMIN L. CURTIS
In this note I firstly give a formulation of Berkeleyean Idealism in modern anti-realist terms. Secondly, I supply a reading of Berkeley that serves to do three things: 1. It makes clear that the formulation of the position in modern terms is acceptable. 2. It offers a revealing insight into the reasons why Berkeley accepted the position. 3. It allows us to see that these reasons are, in fact, bad ones. [source]


A World for Us: the Case for Phenomenalistic Idealism , John Foster

THE PHILOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY, Issue 237 2009
Peter Forrest
First page of article [source]


Return to Figuration: W,adis,aw Strzemi,ski and the move from Idealism

ART HISTORY, Issue 1 2001
Esther Levinger
Contrary to the homogeneous flat canvases of Unism, in which W,adis,aw Strzemin,ski attempted to surpass the incidents and vagaries of sensory perception, in the nature-inspired works he sought to represent a physiologically accurate vision. His purpose was to present humankind in the role of an active agent who formed the world and its concepts through observation and actual labour. An important contribution by Strzemi,ski to modern thought was therefore his introduction of the corporeal subject into the theory of art, a subject who perceived with the mechanics of his or her physiological eye. The return to figuration never signalled a distressing regression or a desperate act, but a fresh beginning and a mark of optimism: faith in the human capacity to change the world and faith in the transforming potential of human sight. [source]


Green's Rights Recognition Thesis and Moral Internalism*

BRITISH JOURNAL OF POLITICS & INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, Issue 1 2005
Gerald F. Gaus
T. H. Green claimed that ,rights are made by recognition. There is no right but thinking makes it so'. This ,rights recognition thesis' is widely rejected. I argue in this article that, so far from being an idiosyncratic doctrine of 19th -century British Idealism, the rights recognition thesis implies a compelling conception of rights, and one that, surprisingly, is more in tune with contemporary meta-ethics than are many contemporary rights theories. Green's moral theory, I argue, is a form of the widely embraced doctrine of ,moral internalism'. Such internalism, conjoined with a generally embraced analysis of rights, leads to some version of the rights recognition thesis. [source]


The Inner and the Outer: Kant's ,Refutation' Reconstructed

RATIO, Issue 2 2000
Robert Hanna
In Skeptical idealism says that possibly nothing exists outside my own conscious mental states. Purported refutations of skeptical idealism , whether Descartes's, Locke's, Reid's, Kant's, Moore's, Putnam's, or Burge's , are philosophically scandalous: they have convinced no one. I argue (1) that what is wrong with the failed refutations is that they have attempted to prove the wrong thing , i.e., that necessarily I have veridical perceptions of distal material objects in space, and (2) that a charitable reconstruction of Kant's ,Refutation of Idealism' in fact provides a sound refutation of skeptical idealism. [source]


Mad tales from Bollywood: the impact of social, political, and economic climate on the portrayal of mental illness in Hindi films

ACTA PSYCHIATRICA SCANDINAVICA, Issue 4 2005
D. Bhugra
Objective:, To study the portrayal of mental illness (especially psychosis) in Hindi films since 1950 and to study the influence of prevalent social, political and economic factors on each portrayal. Method:, Using two encyclopaedias and one source book, films that had mental illness affecting one of the protagonists were identified. The social, economic and political factors were identified using history texts. Results:, In the 1960s after India became a Republic, the political climate was one of idealism and as a result the portrayal of mental illness was gentle, more international in its outlook, and used psychoanalytic techniques. In the 1970s and 1980s, as a result of increased political and bureaucratic corruption and an unstable political climate, the portrayals became harder and psychopaths were portrayed more often. In the 1980s, the trend continued with female psychopaths, and avenging women emerged as a major force because the political and judicial systems were seen as impotent in delivering justice. In the 1990s, following economic liberalization, the women were seen and used as possessions in society and the cinema, and portrayals of stalking and morbid jealousy increased. Conclusion:, Hindi films since the 1950s appear to have been influenced by changing cultural norms which in turn affected the way mental illness is portrayed. [source]


That Which Makes the Sensation of Blue a Mental Fact: Moore on Phenomenal Relationism

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY, Issue 3 2007
Benj Hellie
A gift of a dollar for each article in the philosophy of perception and consciousness published since 1990 making reference, explicitly or implicitly, to Moore's discussion in the second half of Moore 19031 of an alleged ,transparency' and ,diaphanousness' pertaining to some aspect of perceptual experience would very likely cover the tab of a mid-priced dinner for two.2 Moore's poetically expressed observations have captured the imagination of contemporary philosophers of perception and consciousness, and have served as the basis of much fruitful discussion in those areas. Still, despite all the attention these observations have received, the contemporary literature lacks a close reading of the second half of Moore's paper, without which it is impossible to understand Moore's observations in the context in which they were originally expressed. It is understandable that such a close reading is lacking: the second half of Moore's paper has been rightly described by one of his most sympathetic and dedicated interpreters as ,extremely dense and opaque' (Klemke 2000: 55).3 But despite the evident difficulties of the task, I aim here, with some trepidation, to provide the missing close reading. The main points of my interpretation will be these. The centerpiece of the anti-idealist manoeuvrings of the second half of the paper is a phenomenological argument for what I will call a relational view of perceptual phenomenal character, on which, roughly, ,that which makes the sensation of blue a mental fact' is a relation of conscious awareness, a view close to the opposite of the most characteristic contemporary view going under the transparency rubric.4 The discussion of transparency and diaphanousness is a sidelight, its principal purpose to shore up the main line of argumentation against criticism; in those passages all Moore argues is that the relation of conscious awareness is not transparent, while acknowledging that it can seem to be. My discussion will proceed as follows. In section 1, I will discuss some theses and elucidate some notions from the philosophy of perception and consciousness which will be central to my interpretation; having done so, I will be in a position to explain how an accurate understanding of Moore may contribute to theoretical advances in the philosophy of perception and consciousness. The next two sections contain the exegetical heart of the paper: section 2 provides an analysis of Moore's case for the relational view; section 3 attempts to explain the place of the relational view in the overall refutation of idealism. Section 4 critically discusses a pair of competing interpretations. Section 5 wraps things up, drawing concluding morals as to the campaigns on behalf of which Moore should and should not be enlisted. [source]


Is Thabo Mbeki Africa's Saviour?

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, Issue 4 2003
Gerrit Olivier
Foreign relations are the main preoccupation of South African president, Thabo Mbeki. His role perception is dominated by a mission to improve the plight of Africa, and second to that, to act as the Third World's überdiplomat. Under his administration, South Africa's foreign policy has become almost an adjunct of his more holistic diplomatic pursuits. The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) is the magnum opus of Mbeki's foreign policy, and the success or failure of this grand design for an African renaissance will determine his legacy and make or break his leadership in South Africa and in the rest of Africa. The success of his NEPAD diplomacy is a daunting task, requiring the support of his African peers, his South African constituency, and the leadership of the developed nations of the world. Dealing with these diverse elements, Mbeki's policy-making oscillates between realism and idealism, and between ideology and interests, giving the impression of a style of a prudent bureaucrat rather than that of a single-minded reformer. In the end, his diplomacy seems to founder because it fails to satisfy the contradictory demands of any of these three constituencies. However, even if NEPAD should fail as a project, its role could be that of a harbinger of a new political and economic era in Africa and the movement away from post-colonial orthodoxy. [source]


George W. Bush, Idealist

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, Issue 3 2003
Michael J. Mazarr
There is much anger and confused grumbling these days outside the United States,and in Europe in particular,about the character of the Bush administration's foreign policy. Perceived American unilateralism is raising hackles and questions. This article contends that current trends in US foreign policy can be better understood by realizing that many senior Bush administration officials are not ,realists', at least as that philosophy of world politics is classically understood. Many of the resulting views,that, for example, threats to security often originate in ideology rather than material strength,are demonstrably correct and even hopeful in their faith in long-term historical trends. But there may be no getting around the essential contradictions required of US foreign policy in an age when America is the leading power, when a new global community of trading democracies is emerging, and yet when a number of distinctly old-style threats to the peace remain very much in evidence. Washington could do more to smooth the edges of those contradictions in order to point up the idealism and hopefulness of US policy. [source]


Pondering the Sinlessness of Jesus Christ: Moral Christologies and the Witness of Scripture

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY, Issue 4 2008
IVOR J. DAVIDSON
The models that typically emerge in modernity face major difficulties. This article seeks to reorient the discussion of sinlessness in biblical terms, and suggests that scripture's witness points toward an account of the moral character of Jesus as grounded specifically in inner-divine relations rather than in any sort of idealism. Such a trinitarian account also raises questions about some conventional approaches to the metaphysics of sinlessness. [source]


The October Riots in France: A Failed Immigration Policy or the Empire Strikes Back?

INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 2 2006
Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad
ABSTRACT In October 2005, the predominately Arab-immigrant suburbs of Paris, Lyon, Lille and other French cities erupted in riots by socially alienated teenagers, many of them second- or third-generation immigrants. For many French observers, it was a painful reminder that France's immigration policy had, quite bluntly, failed. The grand French ideal of égalité, the equality of all citizens of the Republic, itself a by-product of France's colonial past, demonstrated its incompatibility with twenty-first century reality. The French immigration experience is markedly different than those of other European countries, as France's is tainted by colonial history, republican idealism, a rigidly centralized government structure, and deep-seeded traditions of xenophobia. Indeed, the nineteenth century French policy of the mission civilicatrice (civilizing mission) still influences French policy toward its immigrants today: rather than accept cultural differences, the French government demands that all its citizens adhere to a rigid and exclusive "French" identity. As such, the children of the generation of immigrants that the French government actively brought to France to fuel its post-war expansion now find themselves unemployed and socially marginalized. Government social structures meant to ease the disparity between social classes, such as public housing and education, generally do more to aggravate problems than to solve them; public housing is woefully inadequate and the education structure institutionalizes the poor quality of schools in immigrant communities. Despite this generally poor outlook, the French have recently made some progress toward better integration of their immigrant communities, though these efforts are generally met with wide-spread demagogic and populist opposition. LES ÉMEUTES D'OCTOBRE EN FRANCE: ÉCHEC DE LA POLITIQUE D'IMMIGRATION OU L'EMPIRE CONTRE-ATTAQUE? En octobre 2005, dans les banlieues de Paris, Lyon, Lille et d'autres villes françaises, oú prédominent les immigrés arabes, des émeutes ont éclaté, menées par des adolescents socialement aliénés, dont beaucoup étaient des immigrés de deuxième ou troisième génération. Pour nombre d'observateurs français, ces événements ont douloureusement confirmé que la politique d'immigration de la France était un échec cuisant. Le magnifique idéal français d'égalité de tous les citoyens de la République, lui-même un sous-produit du passé colonial de la France, se révélait décidément incompatible avec la réalité du 21e siècle. En matière d'immigration, l'expérience de la France est sensiblement différente de celle des autres pays européens, la France étant marquée par une histoire coloniale, un idéalisme républicain, une structure gouvernementale rigidement centralisée et une tradition de xénophobie profondément ancrée. D'ailleurs, l'approche française de la mission civilisatrice, qui avait cours au 19e siècle, continue d'influencer la politique de la France à l'égard de ses immigrés: plutôt que d'accepter les différences culturelles, le Gouvernement français exige que tous les citoyens adhèrent à une identité « française » à la fois rigide et exclusive. Les enfants des immigrés que le Gouvernement français avait fait venir en France pour soutenir son expansion d'après-guerre se retrouvent maintenant au chômage et socialement marginalisés. Les structures sociales gouvernementales destinées à atténuer les disparités entre classes sociales, notamment le logement social et l'enseignement, font souvent plus pour aggraver les problèmes que pour les résoudre. Les logements sociaux sont cruellement insuffisants et le système d'enseignement institutionnalise la mauvaise qualité des établissements scolaires fréquentés par les communautés d'immigrés. Malgré ces perspectives généralement médiocres, les Français ont fait des progrès dans le sens d'une meilleure intégration de ces communautés, bien que ces efforts se heurtent généralement à une importante opposition teintée de démagogie et de populisme. LAS REVUELTAS DE OCTUBRE EN FRANCIA: ¿UNA POLÍTICA DE INMIGRACIÓN ERRÓNEA O EL IMPERIO CONTRAATACA? En octubre de 2005, los barrios donde predomina la inmigración árabe de París, Lyon, Lille y otras ciudades francesas fueron el escenario de revueltas de adolescentes socialmente alienados, muchos de ellos inmigrantes de segunda o tercera generación. Para muchos observadores franceses, fue un doloroso recordatorio de que, con bastante claridad, la política de inmigración de Francia había fracasado. El gran ideal francés de l'égalité, es decir, la igualdad de todos los ciudadanos de la República, consecuencia en sí misma del pasado colonial francés, demostró su incompatibilidad con la realidad del siglo XXI. La experiencia de la inmigración francesa es muy distinta a la de otros países europeos, ya que Francia está marcada por su historia colonial, el idealismo republicano, una estructura gubernamental estrictamente centralizada y unas tradiciones arraigadas de xenofobia. Ciertamente, la política francesa del siglo XIX de la mission civilisatrice (misión civilizadora) influye aún hoy en la política francesa sobre inmigración: más que aceptar las diferencias culturales, el Gobierno francés exige que todos sus ciudadanos se adhieran a una identidad "francesa" rígida y exclusiva. Los hijos de la generación de inmigrantes a los que el Gobierno francés alentó activamente a ir a Francia para impulsar la expansión de la postguerra se encuentran ahora sin trabajo y marginados de la sociedad. Las estructuras sociales del Estado, encaminadas a disminuir la disparidad entre clases sociales, tales como la vivienda y la educación públicas, contribuyen generalmente a agravar los problemas más que a solucionarlos: las viviendas públicas son lamentablemente inadecuadas y la estructura educativa institucionaliza la escasa calidad de las escuelas de las comunidades de inmigrantes. A pesar de este panorama en general poco prometedor, los franceses han logrado recientemente algunos progresos hacia una mejor integración de sus comunidades inmigrantes, aunque estos esfuerzos se encuentran a menudo con una oposición demagógica y populista ampliamente extendida. [source]


Materialism, Agnosticism and God

JOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, Issue 4 2001
Sean Creaven
The longstanding philosophical debate between idealism and materialism has recently entered the ontological terrain of critical realism (CR) and dialectical critical realism (DCR). This has been initiated by Roy Bhaskar's most recent book, From East to West, which attempts an ambitious synthesis of philosophy, social theory and theology. On the one hand, Bhaskar's attempt to root his philosophy and social theory in a ,realist theory of God' has found an echo within the CR and DCR research camp, some of whose members would urge us to take seriously the possibility of a ,religious sociology'. On the other hand, Bhaskar's abrupt ,idealist turn' has left many critical realists flabbergasted and horrified, particularly those working at the interface between realist philosophy and Marxist social science, especially since Bhaskar's new philosophical trajec-tory is radically at odds with the ,synchronic emergent powers materialism' outlined in his The Possibility of Naturalism. In response to this ,split' within the CR and DCR camp, the spectre of ,realist agnosticism' has been raised and defended by Mervyn Hartwig in this journal. Since neither science nor philosophy can settle the issue of what kind of stuff constitutes ,rock bottom reality', it is rational to be agnostic on the ,ultimate question', to deny positively affirming the claims of either one side or the other. Now this is the move that is resisted in this paper. My argument is that ontolog-ical idealism is disputable on a number of grounds-philosophical, scientific, ethical and political. In particular, I argue that objective idealism is unsupported by rational knowledge, is riddled with conceptual and logical defects, is contrary to the logic of scientific discovery, and is an obstacle to eudaimonia (human emancipation). Further, since realist agnosticism rests its case on the myth of infallible knowledge, and obviously stands or falls with the defensibility or other-wise of objective idealism, this gives us ,good enough' reasons for accepting a thoroughgoing materialism as the ontological foundation of social theory. [source]


Psychological functioning in families that blame: from blaming events to theory integration

JOURNAL OF FAMILY THERAPY, Issue 4 2005
Ceri Bowen
Blaming events in therapy were used as a focus for discussions with family therapists in order to examine their construal of the therapeutic process when working with families who blame. Interview transcripts were used as data which were analysed using a qualitative methodology, with a view to building a theoretical model. We present an exploratory model that allows therapists to position their therapy within a broader framework of psychological approaches. When prompted by a video-clip of blaming from the therapy setting, therapists tended to categorize current difficulties in terms of fear and control issues from past relationships and consequent underlying beliefs, and they also described the resultant negative outlook as a direct challenge to therapist idealism. Interestingly, the two themes that emerged from the interview data with the most categories and quotes were ,unhealthy allocation of responsibility for problems', which is arguably the main source of overt blaming, and ,family identity and cohesion', so often a point of contention during therapy. [source]


Friedrich Albert Lange on neo-Kantianism, socialist Darwinism, and a psychology without a soul

JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF THE BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES, Issue 3 2002
Thomas Teo associate professor of psychology
Friedrich Albert Lange was a German philosopher, political theorist, educator, and psychologist who outlined an objective psychology in the 1860s. This article shows how some of the most important worldviews of the nineteenth century (Kantianism, Marxism, and Darwinism) were combined creatively in his thought system. He was crucial in the development of neo-Kantianism and incorporated psycho-physiological research on sensation and perception in order to defend Kant's epistemological idealism. Based on a critique of phrenology and philosophical psychology of his time, Lange developed a program of a psychology without a soul. He suggested that only those phenomena that can be observed and controlled should be studied, that psychology should focus on actions and speech, and that for each psychological event the corresponding physical or physiological processes should be identified. Lange opposed introspection and subjective accounts and promoted experiments and statistics. He also promoted Darwinism for psychology while developing a socialist progressive-democratic reading of Darwin in his social theory. The implications of socialist Darwinism on Lange's conceptualization of race are discussed and his prominence in nineteenth century philosophy and psychology is summarized. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]


Generational differences in soft knowledge situations: status, need for recognition, workplace commitment and idealism

KNOWLEDGE AND PROCESS MANAGEMENT: THE JOURNAL OF CORPORATE TRANSFORMATION, Issue 1 2008
Peter Busch
Much knowledge management (KM) literature is focused on the improvements that can be made to organisations if they use their knowledge resource effectively. A great deal of knowledge rests in the heads of employees. Little to date has discussed the differences in soft knowledge utilisation amongst different generations of employees particularly in the IT sector. By generations we refer to the Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y. Our study establishes that there were a number of differences between how the three Generations would deal with certain IT soft knowledge situations. These differences were along the following lines; issues of status in the workplace; need for recognition, typically by younger employees; issues of commitment to the workplace and finally idealism in the place of work. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


COSMOPOLITANISM AND HUMAN RIGHTS: RADICALISM IN A GLOBAL AGE

METAPHILOSOPHY, Issue 1 2009
ROBERT FINE
Abstract: The cosmopolitan imagination constructs a world order in which the idea of human rights is an operative principle of justice. Does it also construct an idealisation of human rights? The radicality of Enlightenment cosmopolitanism, as developed by Kant, lay in its analysis of the roots of organised violence in the modern world and its visionary programme for changing the world. Today, the temptation that faces the cosmopolitan imagination is to turn itself into an endorsement of the existing order of human rights without a corresponding critical analysis of the roots of contemporary violence. Is the critical idealism associated with Kantian cosmopolitanism at risk of transmutation into an uncritical positivism? We find two prevailing approaches: either the constitutional framework of the existing world order is presented as the realisation of the cosmopolitan vision, or cosmopolitanism is turned into a utopian vision of a world order in which power is subordinated to the rule of international law. I suggest that the difficulties associated with both wings of cosmopolitanism threaten the legitimacy of the project and call for an understanding and culture of human rights that is less exclusively "conceptual" and more firmly grounded in social theory. [source]


GRAMMATICAL THERAPY AND THE THIRD WITTGENSTEIN

METAPHILOSOPHY, Issue 4-5 2008
ROM HARRÉ
Abstract: The argument for interpreting Wittgenstein's project as primarily therapeutic can be extended from the domain of intellectual pathologies that form the core of the Philosophical Investigations to the topics in On Certainty, carrying further Hutchinson's recent argument for the priority of therapy in Wittgenstein's project. In this article I discuss whether the line Hutchinson takes is extendable to the work of the Third Wittgenstein. For example, how does Wittgenstein's discussion of Moore's "refutation of idealism" in On Certainty work as therapy when we think of it in "practice" terms? What practice? I suggest a further, but more tentative, step applying the therapeutic idea to seemingly insurmountable practical problems, where method is also at issue. [source]


On the Structure of Twentieth-Century Philosophy

METAPHILOSOPHY, Issue 4 2004
Tom Rockmore
Abstract: It makes sense to ask from time to time where we are in the philosophical discussion. This article reviews the debate in the twentieth century. Michael Friedman has recently argued that the split between Continental and analytic philosophy is due to the inability, because of war, to carry forward a genuine debate begun by Heidegger and Carnap around the time of Heidegger's public controversy with Cassirer at Davos in 1929. I, however, argue that there was not even the beginning of a genuine debate between Heidegger and Carnap. I argue further that the split between analytic and Continental philosophy originated earlier, in the analytic attack on idealism at the beginning of the century. And finally I argue that the differences among analytic philosophy, Continental philosophy, and pragmatism, the third main current of twentieth-century philosophy, can be traced to differing reactions to Kant. [source]